Explorer of the North-Еdward Belcher

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Sir Edward Belcher, (born 1799, Halifax, Nova Scotia [now in Canada]—died March 18, 1877, London, Eng.), naval officer who performed many coastal surveys for the British Admiralty. The grandson of a governor of Nova Scotia, Belcher entered the navy in 1812. After serving as a surveyor with an expedition to the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Strait in 1825, he commanded a surveying ship along the north and west coasts of Africa (1830–33). He undertook a voyage to the west coasts of North and South America, the South Pacific, and China (1836–42) and a subsequent voyage to China, Borneo, the Philippine Islands, and Formosa (1843–46).
In 1852 Belcher led the last and largest Admiralty expedition to attempt to find and rescue Sir John Franklin. He was also to look for his former surveying officer in Hong Kong, Sir Richard Collinson, and Sir Robert McClure, whose ships had not been seen after entering the Bering Strait.
He had five ships. Belcher, on the ship “HMS Assistance” and the tender "Pioneer" were to enter the Wellington Strait. Belcher and one tender were to enter the Wellington Channel. By early winter Assistance and Pioneer were frozen in at Northumberland Sound to the north of Wellington Channel while Resolute and Intrepid were frozen in off Melville Island. He did a great deal of sledge exploration, rescued McClure and abandoned four of his five ships in the ice. When the ice broke up that summer, he pushed his ships up Wellington Channel and became trapped again.
The hardships of the voyage seemed to tax Belcher beyond his abilities: he ordered four ice-bound ships abandoned in May 1854, apparently without justification.
When the whole party returned to England. Belcher went through a court martial, which was automatic for any captain who had lost a ship.
He was exonerated, but his sword was returned to him "without observation". He never again received an active command. Curiously Resolute broke free of the ice and drifted all the way to Davis Strait, where it was picked up by an American whaler. The American government graciously returned the ship to the United Kingdom, and when many years later the ship was broken up, its timbers were used to make a desk for the American president by way of a thank you. This Resolute desk, a gift from Queen Victoria, is still used today in the Oval Office.
Following his last active service, Belcher was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1867, and an admiral in 1872.
The design stamp is made after painting of Thomas Goldsworthy Dutton: « "Assistance" and «Pioneer» breaking out of winter quarters,1854».
PMR 2019 «Р»
Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Belcher

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The painting of Thomas Goldsworthy Dutton: « Assistance» and «Pioneer» breaking out of winter quarters,1854».